Bible 101 - 2 Chronicles Chapters 33-36
& Introduction to Ezra

Presented July 11, 2005 by Phyllis Gilbert

Review: We saw King Hezekiah from God's point of view as a great king - one who instituted reforms, re-opened the temple, inspired the people to revival - and all of this followed one of the worst kings Judah had ever had, Hezekiah's father Ahaz. Isaiah the prophet was no doubt the reason Hezekiah was so faithful. And we can assume, too, that Isaiah or another godly man had taken Hezekiah under his wing at the time of Ahaz's worst idolatry, teaching him the law, preparing him for godly leadership. And he responded well, pleasing the people and God. The account of Hezekiah's reign in II Kings gave little recognition of his religious leadership, devoting nearly all its history to his having survived the Assyrian threat because of God's intervention. By contrast, the Chronicler's history emphasizes that spiritual leadership that Hezekiah began in the first month of the first year of his reign. And then his son took the throne - and Manasseh's wickedness proved to be the worst of all of Judah's kings.

II Chronicles 33: Manasseh became king after Hezekiah's death, reigning 55 years as the 14th king of Judah. He was co-regent with his father at the beginning, since he was only 12, and the summary of his reign is "he did evil in the eyes of the Lord." He rebuilt high places and altars to Baal and poles for Asherah, and the people followed him in worship of the pagan gods - "detestable practices of the nations God had driven out" in front of his people who were to be a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation," (Ex. 19:6), a shining example of true worship and morality for all the world to see. Manasseh went so far as to build a pagan altar in the Temple of the Lord, as his ancestor Athaliah had done when she was queen in 841 B.C. nearly 150 years before. His grandfather Ahaz had defiled the Temple, and his father Hezekiah had directed the priests to clean it out and rededicate it. And now, true worship was abandoned once more with desecration of the Temple following. "Manasseh led Judah astray so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites" (v. 9). This is a statement we haven't read about any of the previous kings of Judah.

II Chronicle 33:10: God tries to get the king and the nation's attention through the prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, but both the people and the king remain deaf. So God uses the Assyrians who invade Jerusalem and carry Manasseh off as prisoner to Babylon. In this humiliated state, Manasseh repented of his sin and asked God's help. God listened and responded; Manasseh was freed and allowed to return to Jerusalem to rule. As proof of his repentance, Manasseh got rid of pagan gods and restored the altar of God with its daily sacrifices. Here was a king who started as an idolator and who ended as a man of faith - the reverse of several kings who preceded him. Note that the account in II Kings does not include his repentance; it's logical, however, that the Chronicler (who lived in Babylon and may have seen or heard evidence of Manasseh's time there) would include it since it happened and Manasseh became a God-fearing man.

II Chronicles 33:21: At Manasseh's death, his son Amon succeeded him, reigning just 2 years before his officials conspired against him and assassinated him. He was an evil king, worshiping the Baals and other pagan gods.

II Chronicles 34: We're close to the end of Judah's history, and before the Babylonians invade and destroy, we come to one final spiritual high point, and after that, it's all down hill. Nevertheless, ch. 34 and 35 show us not only a good king, but the power of spiritual leadership. Josiah became the last good king of Judah at the tender age of 8, and much as his ancestor Joash had done when he became king at age 7, he instituted reforms. As the reformers before him, notably Joash and Hezekiah, he tore down pagan altars and Asherah poles, exhorting the people to worship God at the Temple once again. And he didn't stop at Judah's borders; he went into Israel to smash altars and poles, scattering the debris over the tombs of those who'd worshiped pagan gods. In fact, he's the king who fulfilled the prophecy against Jeroboam recorded in I Kings 13. Jeroboam, the first king of Israel once the two kingdoms had divided in 930 B.C. had established pagan worship centers in Dan and Bethel. And an unnamed prophet was sent by God from Judah to warn him of his evil and his eventual fate. It was Josiah whose actions fulfilled the prophecy nearly 300 years later. And much as Joash, Hezekiah and others had done, he repaired and cleaned the Temple of its defilement, making it ready for sacrifice and offerings once again. While the men were repairing the Temple, they found the book of the law - a turning point in Josiah's reign.

II Chronicles 34:14: Significantly, it was the high priest who found the law (most likely the book of Deuteronomy). We can wonder what the priests had been following prior to this time, but nevertheless, once the law was found, Hilkiah gave it to the palace secretary who took it to Josiah. The law was read aloud to the king who was so convicted by what he heard that he wept and mourned. The word of God is powerful, Paul tells us, comparing it to a sword (Ephesians 6), and here we see an example of how it cut through all the misbelief and hearsay and convinced the king that further reforms were needed. He sent his officials to find a prophet, and they went to Huldah, a prophetess, the wife of one of the Levites. She told them what God said: punishment would follow the people's unfaithfulness - the disaster to come would bring to reality God's curses for disobedience found in Deut. 28. However, because of Josiah's reforms and willingness to change, God would hold off the final disaster until after his death. Josiah calls everyone together to renew the covenant. He himself reads the law to the people at the Temple. And the people, too, were convicted by the words of the law which they had not been faithful to for years.

II Chronicles 35: And as we saw during Hezekiah's reign, the people joyfully celebrate Passover. But this time, they celebrate during the month the law prescribed, on the 14th day of the 1st month. As a prelude to this celebration, Josiah tells the priests to "put the sacred ark in the temple" (v. 3). We can infer that this instruction was needed because the ark was OUT of the temple. Why and when it was removed is not explained, but it's a safe guess that it was during Manasseh's time that the ark was taken out of the Holy of Holies and moved to a storage room, or even to a Levite's home to protect it during a time of complete idolatry. For whatever reason it was absent, the ark is now returned to its rightful place, and Josiah tells the priests and Levites to prepare the people for Passover. Animals were sacrificed as sin and burnt offerings, and thousands of lambs were killed and their blood sprinkled in a ceremony of remembrance. Then many of these lambs were roasted and the people ate the Passover meal together. We first learned of Passover in Ex. 12, and you'll recall that God was very clear about the necessity of celebrating this feast every year at the appointed time. But once the kingdom split in 930 B.C., it's clear that Passover was a "sometime" thing. Many of the devout Jewish families may have held Passover dinners and remembrances in their homes, but large-scale community celebrations were held only during Hezekiah's and Josiah's time. God had said Passover was to be a time of remembering their deliverance from Egypt, slavery, and sin. We remember our deliverance from sin every week in the Holy Eucharist, and we need to do this in order to keep firmly in mind and heart what Jesus has done for us. In the two big Passovers in Judah, many of God's people were introduced to this feast, and its absence from their lives may in part explain why they eagerly followed other gods.

II Chronicles 35:20: Josiah dies in a needless way: he confronts the Egyptian pharaoh who is apparently not at war against Judah, but is on the way to Assyria to help the king of Assyria put down a rebellion in Babylon. Pharaoh Neco tells Josiah "I have no quarrel with you," but Josiah won't back down, and he's killed. We're told he is buried with the kings and mourned by all his people. Jeremiah the prophet wrote laments or songs of sorrow at Josiah's death. Jeremiah was the prophet in Judah when Josiah was king, as well as when three of his sons succeeded him and the Babylonian army took Jerusalem and carried away the survivors. The book with his name and Lamentations describe conditions in Judah at that time, and God's warnings to the people.

II Chronicles 36: In this final chapter, we read briefly of the three sons of Josiah who succeeded him to the throne: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, and finally of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. None of these four kings did anything good in God's eyes, and the collapse of the kingdom is swift. Josiah died in 609 B.C., and the city of Jerusalem is destroyed in 586 B.C., just 23 years later. Here are the four kings:

II Chronicles 36:15-21: Here the Chronicler summarizes the final decline of Judah, its destruction as God's punishment for the people's disobedience. And note that the city and the temple were burned down after the last treasures were looted and people taken captive. Then the land enjoyed its sabbath rests for 70 years. All the time the people had occupied the Promised Land, they had failed to obey God's law that after 6 years, the land was to lie fallow for a year, in the 7th year (Sabbath year). And so God gives the land 70 years of rest since 70 Sabbath years had been skipped.

II Chronicles 36:22-end: Ezra, who was in Babylon but not in Jerusalem until 458 B.C., then adds that Cyrus, king of Persia, allowed the people to return to Judah, to rebuild the temple, after those 70 years of captivity were over. This fulfilled Lev. 26:40-45 where God told Moses that the land would be desolate for a period of time, and that the people would be allowed to return to it.

Reflections on the monarchy: When we look back at Ex. 19:6 where God tells Moses that his purpose in calling his people out of Egypt is to establish them as a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation," we realize that God expected his people to be completely different from the nations surrounding them. First, he'd be their king; secondly, they'd live up to a standard of conduct that demanded purity in their relationship with him and with each other, and third, their worship system would be one focused on the altar, but instead of its being an altar of sacrifice to obtain good crops or fertility as the pagan people offered, it was sacrifice to atone for sins, thus reestablishing the nation's fellowship with God. But the people rebelled in the wilderness and so that generation which the Lord began to teach his ways, was destroyed. Their children were taught the law and their history by Moses just before entering the Promised Land. Joshua took them across the Jordan, and in 1406 B.C., they began to conquer the land God had given them. God was using them as human sponges to wipe out the sin in the land and to give it a new start with a people who were "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." But once again, we saw that when scattered in their own tribal lands, the people went through cycle after cycle of sin and punishment, God raising up judges to deliver them. And finally, when Samuel was judge, the people demanded a king "like the other nations." And God told Samuel they weren't rejecting him, Samuel, but they were rejecting God. And Saul as the first king exemplified this rejection: he never did figure out what it was to be God's man on the throne. His failures led to his firing, and God told Samuel to anoint David as the next king. David spent 15 years in preparation for the throne while Saul still occupied it. When he became king in 1010 B.C., he was the greatest king Israel ever had. At the end of his reign, his son Solomon took the throne in a united kingdom (shakily united, but together), and enjoyed peace for 40 years. He built the Temple, and because of his father David's organization of the priests and Levites, ran an efficient system of worship and sacrifice. But in 930 B.C. when Solomon died and his son Rehoboam came to the throne, the unrest which began at the end of Solomon's reign, reached rebellion, and 10 tribes split to form the northern kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam, while two tribes, Benjamin and Judah remained loyal to David's descendants. Judah had 20 kings, its history ending in 586 B.C. with the Babylonian sacking of the city. Israel had 19 kings and its history ended in 722 B.C. at the hands of the Assyrians.

And now captivity. God had said in Deut. 28 that the nation would be blessed if it obeyed, and cursed if it did not. They had adopted the detestable practices of the nations God had put them in the land to drive out. And so God punished them. But as we learned all through the history of the people from Abraham to the captivity, God was merciful to those who confessed, repented and turned to him whole-heartedly. God tells us through Jeremiah "He [God] does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men." (Lam. 3:33). In fact, Jeremiah says, "Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. . . The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." (Lam. 3:23-26). God put off his punishment of Judah because of Josiah's whole-hearted devotion to him, and his destruction of idol altars and symbols, while turning the nation to God. But punishment came, and the city was destroyed, the temple burned, and the people taken captive.

Ezra: Ezra begins his book where II Chronicles ended with the proclamation of Cyrus, king of Persia, allowing Israelites to return home. We read this proclamation as a fulfillment of God's promise, and thereby understand once again, that God uses even pagan kings to carry out his plans. The Persians, the fourth great power to control God's people (without counting the Egyptians), had a different philosophy. Where as the Syrians, Assyrians and Babylonians before Cyrus had destroyed, sacked and taken enemy people captive, the Persians preferred to leave their enemies in the lands they controlled. Thus the people of Israel were allowed to go home, to remain under Persian control, and to pay tribute. But they could live in their own land, worship as they chose, and once again, live in Covenant with God. In fact, during captivity, many Hebrews DID remain in a covenant relationship with God. Daniel is a great example.

Daniel was one of the first captives to be taken to Babylon in 605 B.C. (there were three groups taken, the last in 586 B.C.). Daniel was given language instruction, a new name (Belteshazzar), and asked to eat non-Kosher diet. Daniel refused the diet, saying that such food would defile him. He asked permission to eat only vegetables and water for 10 days, and then, if he and his companions were not just as healthy or healthier than those fed on the king's diet, the king could decide what to do with them. He and his friends thrived on their diet, and so were allowed to continue. In addition, Daniel continued to pray to God, and this got him in trouble with king Darius who succeeded Nebuchadnazzar. Darius's advisors wanted to bring Daniel down; he'd become a high-ranking official in the court. Knowing Daniel prayed to God each day, they decreed that no one could worship or pray to any god except the king for 30 days. Daniel not only continued to pray to God, but he did so without hiding. "When Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed" and his praying posture was visible to all. He was arrested, thrown in the lion's den, and God delivered him from death in this usually fatal pit. Daniel's faithfulness was rewarded with wisdom and abilities that made him valuable to the king - and he was an example not only to his companions, but to Cyrus and to Darius of obedience to the true God. God used his people as "a kingdom of priests" even within a kingdom ruled by human kings.

And we know that the Synagogue system, active and thriving in Jesus' day, began during the time of exile. The Jews who were faithful to God had no temple at which to worship and offer sacrifices, but they had the Word of God in written form. And so the Synagogues began as groups of faithful Jews who would gather for study and prayer around the portions of the law which they had in scroll form.

Daniel's faithfulness, the synagogues, and the response of the people who returned to Jerusalem are evidence of God's work among the exiled people to preserve a remnant who remembered the Covenant and remained in a faithful relationship with God.

Time of Ezra: Ezra returned to Jerusalem in 458 B.C. when Artaxerxes was king. (Note: "return" is used as a word to describe the Jews repatriation to Jerusalem, though many of those who returned had been born in Babylon or Persia; Cyrus's decree allowing return was issued in 539 B.C.). This book and that of Nehemiah which follows are histories of that return and the work to rebuild first the Temple and then the wall in order to reestablish Jerusalem as a vital, thriving city. But Ezra and Nehemiah are more than historic documents just as I and II Chronicles are more than the history of the kings. Both are also books of spiritual guidance. Ezra's purpose in going to Jerusalem was to promote true worship, and one way he did it, was to show how Judah had been blessed when obedient and punished when disobedient. A brief outline of the book shows its emphasis:

Ezra 1 and 2: As we found in the first chapters of I Chronicles, lists take up much of these opening chapters. Ezra provides a historic record for future generations. And in addition to lists, this book is notable for its seven official documents, the first of which appears in ch. 1.

Ezra 1: The proclamation of Cyrus marks the official beginning of the restoration of Jerusalem. And notice that with the people, the king sends Temple treasures and his permission to rebuild the Temple. They are also given money and animals so that they not only can finance the construction of the Temple, but have the start of herds that will provide animals for sacrifices there. And much as their ancestors had done when leaving Egypt generations before, the exiles who returned were loaded down with silver and gold from their neighbors. The inventory of temple vessels closes this chapter.

Ezra 2: A list of people who returned is presented. They were led by Zerrubabel, the governor who would administer civil affairs for the Persian king. Priests also returned, including Jeshua or Joshua, the son of the high priest who was taken captive 50 years before. At the end of the list are names of priests and Levites (in divisions of duties such as musicians and gatekeepers). At the end, we read that 42,360 returnees accompanied by 7,337 servants, made the trip (800 miles, 4-5 months at least, covering the same "road" Abraham had traveled 1500 years before).

Ezra 2:68: Upon arriving in the ruins of Jerusalem, they went to the place where the Temple had stood and began to gather the means of rebuilding. This is significant because it tells us their resettlement was focused on God and reestablishment of a place where God's name would be honored.

Ezra 3: Now the work begins.

Next time: we'll get into the details of the rebuilding and the opposition the builders encountered.

Homework for those who want to go deeper:

Let's close in prayer.